Roger Manvell
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If you have difficulty choosing whether to use obtain or attain in a sentence, don’t worry, we get it. Both can mean “to get” or “to acquire,” and in some situations can be used synonymously, but one or the other might be more appropriate depending on what is being acquired and how. One clue is their respective etymologies: obtain comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin verb obtinēre, meaning “to hold on to, possess,” while attain’s Anglo-French ancestor is ateindre, meaning “to reach” or “to accomplish.” Accordingly, obtain is usually the word used when you are acquiring, by planned effort, a tangible object—something you can hold. “We are having trouble obtaining the supplies we need” sounds natural, for example, while “Have you attained the sugar and flour I asked for?” does not. Reflecting its roots (and also implying effort), attain is often used in the same way as achieve, as in “After decades of hard work she attained her goal of earning a PhD.” Of course, one can also obtain intangible things, such as power or information, so consider this advice something to hold onto and consider when the moment arises—you needn’t cling to it.
Examples of obtain in a Sentence
Billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Sep. 2025
Texas regulators tout their efforts to curtail oil field emissions by requiring drillers to obtain permits to release or burn gas from their wells.
—ProPublica, 4 Sep. 2025
The Holiday star was traveling with his wife, Phillipa Coan, according to the Daily Mail, which obtained footage of the fall.
—Angel Saunders, People.com, 3 Sep. 2025
History of Goudstikker’s collection Between 1933 and 1945, German troops and Nazi agents seized or forced the sale of approximately one-fifth of all Western art that was in existence, totaling nearly 650,000 art pieces, von Saher's attorney said in court records obtained by USA TODAY.
—Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for obtain
Cite this Entry
“Obtain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obtain. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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obtain
verb
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